"Not only have (the extremists) hijacked my religion, they've also attacked my country. That makes me sad and heartbroken."
Source/Credit: Winnipeg Sun
By Glen Dawkins | November 02, 2014
Close to 60 members of Winnipeg's Muslim community rallied at the Manitoba Legislative Building Sunday to condemn the recent acts of terror on Parliament Hill and in Quebec.
"We wanted to show our solidarity to our fellow Canadians," said Dr. Munier Ahmed, President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at mosque in Winnipeg, which organized the Solidarity Rally. "We want to show that we are part of this community and we categorically condemn these attacks as terrorism. The terrorists want to divide us, but we want to stay united. We want to show everybody that Muslims are peaceful, Islam means peace and we do not endorse these acts of terrorism in any form."
Members of Winnipeg's small Ahmadiyya Muslim community wore poppies and held signs supporting Canada and condemning terrorism and Islamic extremism during Sunday's rally. With Remembrance Day only nine days away, it seemed only appropriate to wear the poppies, the group's spokesman said.
"The poppy represents for us in Canada people who have died to give us liberty and freedom," Bashir Khan said. "The freedom that I enjoy in this country is because a soldier laid down his or her life in Canada. Be it in the last two weeks or 50 years ago or 100 years ago, we have to remember those fallen soldiers."
In two separate attacks last month in Ottawa and Quebec, two Canadian soldiers -- Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent -- were killed by radical recent converts to Islam.
"Not only have (the extremists) hijacked my religion, they've also attacked my country," said Ahmed, who emigrated to Canada from Pakistan in 2002. "That makes me sad and heartbroken."
"It is terrorism. What they have done is terrorism, political assassination," Khan said. "The Prophet Muhammad has this great saying: Be loyal to the country in which you live. Theologically, we believe that if you can't be loyal to the country in which you live, you have no right to remain there and you have no right to call yourself a Muslim. That is the key principle."
The Ahmadiyya Muslim sect was founded in 1889 in India. Many of the participants in Sunday's rally came to Winnipeg from Pakistan to escape religious and political persecution.
"When we have people die here or back (in Pakistan), we have to protect them and that's why we are here," said Amna, an 18-year-old Ahmadiyya Muslim woman, who came from Pakistan two years ago.
-- glen.dawkins@sunmedia.ca - Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins
Read original post here: Manitoba Muslims rally to condemn recent 'terrorism' in Ottawa, Quebec
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